Upon This World of Stone (The Paladin Trilogy Book 2) by James A. Hillebrecht Page B

raising the sail again, it caused the air-boat to fly even faster rather than raising its bow. They were careening downwards at ever increasing speeds, racing towards the craggy sides of the mountains below. Adella turned the tiller hard to the right, sending the vessel flying away from the nearest mountain and gaining a little clearance, but the floor of the valley below was rushing up to greet them.
    Shannon was gasping, Jhan was moaning, and Adella was snarling curses at the obstinate thing, but none of it seemed to make the slightest difference. Death was only a matter of a few heartbeats away, when Shannon suddenly noticed another rope attached to the bow that seemed no more than a tow line. Except it was leading back towards the tiller. Without a word, she threw herself back towards Adella and seized the bow rope with both hands. The woman reacted in kind, supporting Shannon’s action without wasting time on debate, and the two of them put enough pressure on the line to pull it taut. Instantly, the bow began to rise in response, pulling slowly away from its impending collision with the ground, though the speed seemed to increase even further. The two women were shouting in their intensity as they put every bit of their weight and strength onto the line, forcing the bow up one maddening inch at a time, fighting the air-boat for their very lives, and losing. Then, without warning, another body flung itself upon the rope, Jhan fighting off his terror to add his weight to the struggle, and then with dreadful slowness and after an eternity of jeopardy, the fates relented and the vessel slowly began to right itself.
    They were not yet out of danger. The farsail was now whizzing along just above the floor of the valley at a speed that made the surrounding nothing but a blur, entire mountains flying past them in seconds, and Adella quickly discovered that the tiller needed to be handled with extra care when traveling at such a rate.
    “Pull again!” she roared to Shannon and Jhan who obediently threw their weight again on the control line. The bow swung upwards again, beginning a climb, and a little of the craft’s speed fell off as a result. Shannon tugged even harder, hoping to take even more of the way off the wind-boat, but Adella abruptly put a shoulder into her mid-section and sent her sprawling into Jhan. Both of them dropped their hold on the line, and Adella let it play out her own hand, dropping the sail in an instant.
    The farsail stopped climbing, leveled off slightly, and began a slow descent even as it continued to race forward. Its speed was decreasing, but it was still moving much faster than its designer had intended for a safe landing. Adella was leaning forward, studying the terrain carefully, and Shannon scrambled up to a kneeling position just in time to see a plateau on the side of one of the mountains rushing at them. She grabbed the gunnels, closed her eyes, braced herself, and an instant later came a bounce as the air-boat hit rock, a second bounce, then a third, and finally the vessel came to a merciful skidding stop. Shannon blinked, peering about, and in the fading light, she could see the view of endless mountains had given way to foothills flattening out to an endless plain beyond. Their short, mad trip had carried them all the way through the Mountains of the Winds.
    The next sound she heard was Adella’s laughter.
    “By all lightning, storm, and thunder, that was a ride to remember!” she shouted to the rocks. “Not even the eagles could have caught us this day!”
    Jhan had staggered up from the bottom of the boat, and he was glaring at the woman.
    “You maniac!” he roared at her. “You could have gotten us all killed!”
    “You can die just walking into the wrong saloon,” she answered easily. “This was a lot more fun!”
    He could only gape at her. In spite of herself, Shannon found herself grinning with sheer exhilaration, her heart in sync with the woman’s. Adella, however,